Things Are Not Always What
They Seem. . . .
How Prejudice Affects the Way Scout
Sees Things in To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

Main Plot
– Atticus defends Tom Robinson.

Subplot
– Attempts to get Boo Radley to come out of his
house
– Mrs. Dubose’s sickness and death
– The burning of Miss Maudie’s house
Central Conflicts
Atticus’s decision to defend Tom Robinson
goes against the conventions of the
community.
 Scout must come to terms with her father’s
decision and the community’s opinions.
 Scout must learn to understand other people
and accept their differences.

Historical Background

The Great Depression
 Monroeville, Alabama
 The Scottsboro Boys
The Great Depression

1929-1940s
 Period of unemployment and poverty
The Great Depression

The New Deal
 Civil Rights Initiatives
– New Deal
– champions of black rights,
– Prohibition of racial discrimination

WPA
Monroeville, Alabama
Harper Lee’s hometown
 Model for Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a
Mockingbird

Monroe County
Courthouse, model for
the court in To Kill a
Mockingbird
Quotation

Scout on Dill
– “Beautiful things floated around in his dreamy head.
He could read two books to my one, but he preferred
the magic of his own inventions. He could add and
subtract faster than lightning, but he preferred his own
two-light world, a world where babies slept, waiting to
be gathered like morning lilacs. He was slowly talking
himself to sleep and taking me with him, but in the
quietness of his foggy island there rose the faded image
of a gray house with sad brown doors.”
The Scottsboro Boys

Nine black boys accused of raping two
white women
 Trial with an all-white jury
 Eight convicted; one mistrial
 All but one paroled
What Scout Learns

People are not always what they appear to
be.
– Boo Radley is not the murderous character the
town makes him out to be.
– Mrs. Dubose’s nastiness was the result of her
addiction to morphine more than anything else.
– Mr. Randolf is not the town drunk, but letting
people think so makes it easier for them to
accept his eccentricities.
What Scout Learns

People’s deeply rooted prejudices often
blind them to injustice in their own lives
and in their community.
What Scout Learns

Prejudices often sacrifice the innocent.
Quotation

Innocence
– “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but
remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
– “Your father’s right,” she said, “Mockingbirds don’t do
one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t
eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they
don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
That’s why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
What Scout Learns

Only through empathy can prejudices be
overcome.
 Quotation: Empathy
– “’First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick,
Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of
folks. You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view—’
– “’Sir?’
– “’—until you climb into his skin and walk around in
it.’”
What Scout Learns

People of conscience resist prejudice even at the
cost of their relationships with the community.
 Quotation: Atticus on conscience
– “Tom Robinson’s case is something that goes to the
essence of a man’s conscience—Scout, I couldn’t go to
church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that
man.”
– “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a
person’s conscience.”
What Scout Learns
It takes great courage to stand up for one’s
convictions in the face of defeat.
 Quotation: Courage

– “I wanted you to see what real courage is,
instead of getting the idea that courage is a man
with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know
you’re licked before you begin but you begin
anyway and you see it through no matter what.
You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
Works Cited
“Great Depression in the United States.”
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2001. ©
1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.
 Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York:
Warner, 1960
 The Scottsboro Boys.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/sfeatur
e/index.html

Works Cited

“Work Projects Administration.”
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia
2001. © 1993-2000 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.

To Kill a Mockingbird and Harper Lee.
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Culture/HarperL
ee